Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable will step down in May
Vince Cable will step down as Liberal Democrat leader after local elections in May.
In an interview with the Mail today, the former business secretary reveals that he has decided to leave to pave the way for the ‘next generation’ to lead the party through Brexit.
He admits he had presided over a ‘gradual’ rather than a ‘spectacular’ recovery of the party.
But he says he will continue as an MP and devote his spare time to advancing his literary career with another political thriller.
Sir Vince, 75, is making the announcement today to coincide with the Lib Dem spring conference in York, the city he was born.
Explaining his decision, he said his wife wanted to spend more time with him, while he wanted to be able to do the things ‘I can’t do now’.
The veteran MP had previously announced he would stand down after Brexit was ‘resolved’, but conceded: ‘It now looks as if it will be a protracted process, and may never happen.’
He refused to name his preferred successor, but former coalition minister Jo Swinson, former coalition energy secretary Ed Davey and Layla Moran are believed to be keen.
Following his reforms to the party, non-MP candidates could also be in the frame, including Gina Miller, the second referendum campaigner.
‘We’ve got several very good internal candidates - you can work out who they are. The worst thing I can do is to start promoting them,’ he said.
The veteran parliamentarian refused to name his preferred successor as leader, but MPs Jo Swinson, Ed Davey and Layla Moran are all believed to be considering it
He said he would not become a ‘backseat driver’ and would let the next generation set the course for the party.
But he said that should Theresa May’s Brexit deal pass, the party would have to ‘think from scratch’ about the second referendum issue, which he conceded was a ‘last resort’.
Sir Vince said he was announcing his departure now to pave the way for a leadership contest so a 12-week leadership contest can begin in May.
‘I wanted to set it out so that there’s an orderly process of succession and the next generation can come through rather than chaotic power struggles you’re seeing inside the Tory party and Labour party so I wanted us to do better than that,’ he said.
His decision to step down will mean he is able to spend more time with his family, he said, adding: ‘My wife Rachel has been very supportive [of my time as leader] and doesn’t mind me doing it and has come round the country with me, but she would like to spend more time with me. I think she will see it as a bonus that she sees me more.’
He added: ‘I’ll be continuing as an MP. I want to get back to writing books again in my spare time.’
Sir Vince said he was planning a follow-up to his political thriller Open Arms which was published in 2017, and a non-fiction book about politicians who have changed the way we look at economics, from the US founding father Alexander Hamilton to Margaret Thatcher.
The Rt. Hon Vince Cable MP and Erin Boag competing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010
He also plans to spend time building a parliamentary consensus on assisted dying and plans to table a private members’ bill after changing his mind on the issue, which he revealed in a piece in the Mail.
He added: ‘My other thing is to get my dancing back to a serious standard’, though he said he had no plans to take on Strictly Come Dancing again.
The decision to make his announcement now was ‘partly sentimental’ as the Lib Dem spring conference is being held in York, he said/
‘York’s where I was born and brought up. I met my [first] wife Olympia there while we were both working in a mental health hospital. I stood in York in ‘83 and ‘87.
‘So I have all kinds of sentimental and personal attachment, so it seems an obvious place to do this.’
Asked if he was proud of his time in office, he said: ‘Yes, I think we’ve achieved quite a lot. I inherited the legacy of two very difficult general elections. They were very bad.
‘We’ve rebuilt [the party] significantly. There aren’t any electoral events to test it but we’re doing well locally. We think we could do well in May. There’s recovery on that level.
‘We’ve got record levels of membership despite all the difficulties, and morale is high and people are positive and feel we’re achieving something.’
Asked if he had any regrets about his time, he said: ‘I would obviously like to have presided over a spectacular recovery [of the Lib Dems], rather than a gradual recovery, but events were beyond my control.
‘The fact that the issue of no Brexit and peoples vote is still live, that Theresa May can’t get her Brexit deal through, that we’ve managed to scrub no deal is a tribute to the kind of campaigning that our party’s done.
‘I think it is a creditable performance, and I’m very happy to let someone else take it on.’
He said he would step down in May, unless a
